Microeconomic appraisal of pork market indicators including correlation matrices and developmental trend models in the EU

Milan Palát and Šárka Palátová

Abstract: The aim of this article is to evaluate microeconomic aspects of the pork market including correlation matrices of its indicators and key developmental trends in the member states of the European Union. Pig breeding and pork production plays an important role in agribusiness of many EU countries. Production is geographically allocated very unevenly where more than two thirds of pigs are concentrated in Germany, Spain, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Poland. Pig production and pork market are highly specialized across borders, such as Denmark for piglet breeding or Spain for fattening. Mixed producers such as Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands then form one of the main production areas of this commodity. There are also significant structural differences between pig farming in the established and the new member states of the European Union. The highly competitive market includes large enterprises using modern infrastructure with concentrated production enabling to widely benefit from economies of scale but also a high number of small farmers. High competitiveness of key producers is also reflected in international trade patterns. Nevertheless, the decline in the number of pigs in a number of countries can be attributed to low prices and lower profitability. The contribution of this article is to be found also in models of development trends in pork production and it revealed several correlations of pig breeding and other indicators that were calculated on the basis of relevant indicators from the member states of the European Union.

Keywords: commodity vertical; development trend models; input price; market; pork; regression and correlation analysis

Date published: 2022-02-16